rome-ing around...: June 2012

for my 16th birthday present, my wonderful dad hired my dream car for the weekend: a royal blue smart car. so when the opportunity came around to actually drive one from rome to emilia-romagna (the 16th birthday treat was simply for passenger purposes), i jumped at the chance without 2 second's thought. in those 2 seconds, i may have considered: a) a lack of satellite navigation, b) the fact that i was driving from the middle to the top of italy on the wrong side of the road, on the wrong side of the car and in a semi-automatic, c) italian drivers, d) the 15, 000 euro charge for every mile of the autostrada used, e) the fact i couldn't enter the centre of any historical city on wheels, f) the small, one way, impossible, cobbled streets of italian towns, g) my own temper, and h) the well-being of my companion. oh well.

first stop florence. this part of the journey felt as though it was being carried out on a cloud. it was 28 degrees, i was surrounded by beautiful italian campagna, i had chubby checker on volume level 20, an arm on the window, and a packet of haribo on the passenger seat. despite arriving an hour and a half late for my travelling companion (alarm clock had been set for 8pm that evening), i parked the car, hopped on the tram and before i knew it, i was standing in front of the duomo in florence in a summer dress with wet feet, an umbrella in my hand and a smile on my face. i have only been to florence once for five days, but i do feel as though i have been there, done that, got the 4000 photos. so it was nice to have the pressure off and just meander the streets, shops and churches of this beautifully clean and historical city. after seeing the fantastic sunset from san miniato al monte (above the piazzale michelangelo; much quieter up there and worth climbing a few more steps), gorging on red wine pasta and tiramisu at osteria de' benci (yum by the way), i was one satisfied ragazza.

arriving late that night to bologna, we appeared at the communal breakfast table the following morning to hear that we had both slept straight through an earthquake that was level 6 on the richter scale, whose epicentre was just kilometres away. apparently the hostel had been all over the shop and i hadn't even flinched. later that day however we got our comeuppance. whilst admiring one of the largest basilicas in town during sunday mass, a blood curdling scream in the congregation turned me into mufasa and the church-goers into a herd of water buffalo as everyone rushed to escape through the basilica's entrance. as well as aftershocks, we unfortunately felt the presence of nature in the grey skies and heavy rain in bologna. but we were the ones laughing as the continuous network of porticoes around the city kept us nice and dry. sort of.

the university, founded in 1088, is one of the oldest universities in the world. there is no doubt that bologna is a university town; with cheap eats, on-the-go piadina cafes and a young, buzzy vibe, it couldn't be doing anything else than accommodating student life. i have to be honest, nothing in particular wowed me massively but the city certainly has a lovely feel to it. one thing i did notice in bologna, was an abundance of circular niches. Usually placed high up on buildings, with figures leaning out of them as though from a round window, they reminded me of some roman tombs where the faces of the deceased are place into circular frames:

i even had a whack at it...

on sunday night we were recommended a fantastic restaurant si chiama 'osteria dell' orsa'. truly italian in both content and style, we chose from the two fresh pasta dishes on offer. on the one hand, little choice is good for me (aka the world's most indecisive person), but on the other hand, my food envy is out of control and so the fear of choosing the wrong one... pudding was a delicious tiramasu without the su. so just marscapone. washed down with a 7 euro litre of vino rosso we were as content as anything.

ravenna up next. having been told twice that it was a 30-40 minute drive away, we both felt fairly frustrated arriving 1 hour and 45 minutes after leaving bologna. borrowing the sat nav from our wonderful hostel owner seemed like a fantastic idea at the outset but if i ever hear the words 'gira a sinistra' once again i will 'gira a sinistra' and smack the closest person to me. sat nav feuds aside, our day in ravenna certainly morphed from miserable to marvellous. rain turned to sun, ghostly streets became glittering mosaics (on purchasing an 11 euro ticket that allowed us into 5 of the 8 unesco world heritage sites. can you believe that there are 8 in ravenna? beyond me...) and roman tombs became places in which to take a break (see below).
ravenna is an extraordinarily glorious place and i would advise anyone and everyone to visit. briefly the capital of the western roman empire (that is instead of ROME. big. bloomin. deal.) and then later the seat of the byzantine government in italy, ravenna is sweet and unassuming but its chapels, churches, baptisteries and mausoleums all have the potential to blow ya maind. trust me, mosaics aren't usually my cup of lapsang, but ravenna really is very spectacular indeed. and if you've had enough, make sure you get to the basilica of sant' apollinare nuovo where hidden within the tesserae is a fashion statement 14 centuries ahead of its time:

making it back to bologna through what i thought was the apocalypse (worst rainstorm i have EVER been caught in. and i'm english...) i then spent an hour and a half parking the smart car nearly killing a couple of men, a dog and my passenger on my way. lovely stuff.

tomorrow was to be even more of an adventure, we would climb one of italy's tallest towers (and a fairly precarious one at that) and we were to head into the epicentre of the earthquake...unintentionally. playing a fantastic game of 'would you rather your girlfriend had a moustache or hallitosis', we zoomed passed a sign saying 'sant agostino' with a red cross through it. low and behold we had passed through the epicentre of the earthquake and had only realised after flying out of the other side. yikes. arriving in ferarra it was hard to be so ignorant. there was red and white tape, JCBs and cracked walls everywhere. i felt like i had just walked onto a murder scene.
the city of ferarra really is beautiful and the water-filled moat surrounding the castle (one of the only few left in europe mind) is a wonderful focal point. finding a park, hopping on some swings and having a last platter of tagliatelle bolognese (traditionally not spag but tag. bet you didn't know that one. 'tag bol'? it could work), i prepared myself for the long journey back to roma.
other than stopping for tre caffe, listening to my cd 5 times on repeat and taking a wrong turning before getting to rome to a place called flaminia whose wooded lanes told me the only thing in the close vicinity was a cimitero or a cemetry, the trip went lovelily.